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Monday, November 3, 2008

Monday, November 3, 2008

My friends, I come to you today on a matter of grave importance for our nation's future. Many of you have shared with me your concerns over the impending crisis America is facing, and I felt it was best to address this issue head on, while something can still be done to avert total catastrophe. Some of you are scared. Some are angry. Others, just baffled beyond belief. Certainly the future as we know it is hanging in the balance. Still, all is not yet lost.

I'm talking, of course, about these:

That's right: thanks to retailer Bed Bath & Beyond, the dreaded cupcake-cake is coming to the masses. Call it a "Cupcake Puzzle" if you will, BB&B, but we know a Wreckerator when we see one!

Of course, BB&B is just the middle man; the real culprit is the manufacturer, Wilton:

Now, let's not panic just yet, people. Sure, the vast majority of "professionals" can't even produce a decent looking cupcake-cake, leaving us common Janes as likely to traumatize our families as delight them with our potentially half-baked efforts. Yes, the entire CCC concept is inherently flawed, and will therefore always resemble the demented flailings of a prepubescent Pollock. And yes, those separated cupcakes in the photos were obviously decorated separately, which could lead one to accuse Wilton of false advertising. Certainly no cupcake-cake pulls apart with perfectly shaped edges like that.

Still, this is a democracy, my friends, and you have a choice! Just say 'no' to CCCs! Stand up for truth, justice, and real cakes for all! And be sure to use lots of exclamation marks to get your point across!

Or, barring that, make a Wreck and send it to me - I'm kind of curious to see just how bad these bad boys look in "real" life. ;)

John McCain would never allow this. It is obviously a left-wing conspiracy! Vote a straight Republican ticket tomorrow and this cupcake obamanation (obviously a ploy to confuse and divide) will be eliminated by an emergency congressional ban on puzzle cupcake cake kits. Oh wait... the House and Senate are still run by a Democratic majority.

I worry the most for the children... not only are they subjected to these so-called puzzle cakes, the makers seem to be encouraging their participation! What's next? MMF step-by-steps in picture books? Oh, the humanity!

My 14 year old daughter thought these were the coolest things ever - and as such we now have one. I'll send you a picture as soon as I get the courage to use the thing. Something about decapitating a teddy bear makes me slightly uneasy though.

I am so glad you are featuring this. I saw these in the junk mail and was so tempted to send it in. Square cupcakes? Triangles? Where will it end? What will they think of next? The purse one did look cute for a little cousin's party.

Do I see different shaped cupcakes? That just adds two more layers of potential disaster to these wrecks-to-be: uneven cooking and kids complaining about getting gipped (who wants a measly little triangle when his/her sibling gets a giant rectangle?).

I saw these in a Bed Bath and Beyond advertisement and was particularly appalled when I saw the manufacturer was Wilton. What in the world are they thinking?? There is no way the average decorator will be able to make anything even closely resembling a butterfly or a bear with those kids. Unacceptable.

Michael's has carried those hideous things for the last six months...way to ruin cake decorating! I guess it you have no imagination or talent, it's the right thing. I would have expected it from some knock off company, not Wilton.

I am so glad you get right to the heart of what really matters - tragicakes! This cannot be good for national morale in the midst of our financial crisis - imagine celebrating your retirement with no 401K left, and one of these CCC's to boot. I hope there is a psychological helpline number listed on the Wilton box.

It is, however, quite clever that they have different shaped cupcake liners to bake the cupcakes in. I can't imagine that the cupcake would actually follow a flimsy paper liner while baking, but you know, if the professionals would take a hint from that and use silicone ones, or something, I think their CCC's would turn out MUCH better.

(By the way, the word on my verification thing for the comment is "enimi." I think even the blog is trying to comment that these are the "enimi!")

My first post to Cake Wrecks! Love your blog!! I have to comment and say CCC's don't seem to have made it across the pond to the UK yet, nevermind CYOCCC (Create your own cupcake cakes!). We are safe with standard original wrecks!!!!

You've got to be kidding - this is a disaster!!!!!!!!!! I loved the perfectly pulled apart piece of the purse! This is nearly the same as trying to imitate a designer cupcake from Ladies Home Journal - where you roll out spice drops and fold into flowers or pumpkin stems - tried them both....my daughters teacher thought the eight year old did it....I was to embarrassed to tell her I'd done it....ignorance is bliss!

I'd say these have the potential for lower wreckitude than the standard CCC. At least a person could, potentially, make a shape with minimal empty space between cupcakes. (If they didn't use the round ones, anyway.)

Does that mean people WILL do that? Probably not. They'll probably try, then discover that they'd need like 47 cups of each shape to make whatever they were trying to make, and give up and stick them all in randomly, making an even worse mess than with an ordinary CCC.

Also, what have I irritated everyone here by ranting about like 47 times already? TAKE THE DANG PAPER OFF. And here it's expensive silicone cups. If you take cake in 24 silicone cups to a first-grade class birthday, how many silicone cups will you go home with?

Aren't cup cake cakes kinda like...cheating? Can't make a proper full-fledged cake, so they make cup cakes and then jam them all together into one horrific mass confection? I SAY NO! You're too right. All the "bakers" and I use that time lightly -- you make a mess of cup cakes will now be producing these "cc cakes." Oh, the humanity!

I should add to my rant that I do kind of like the flower cake, which, probably not coincidentally, avoids most of the evils of CCCs. Although I'm afraid its center may be a mini CCC made of six of those little triangular ones.

As a mom, I have to say, while the CCC makes for fantastic caketastrophe, it's extremely convenient. I've been at many a party where the crazed preschoolers stand anxiously around with plastic utensils in hand while the nervous mom sings, displays, hosts, instructs, cuts, scoops ice cream and serves all while missing her sweet birthday star's blowing-out-the-candle and icing-on-the-nose photo opps. So while I agree 100% that CCC's are an abomination to all decorators everywhere, they sure do fill a need. Go easy on us frazzled moms who need any break we can get. We're sleep deprived, and spend a majority of our time with diaper-wearing, gibberish-speaking mess machines...who can blame us for not trusting ourselves with a knife in a large crowd?

I am really missing something with all these cupcake cakes. What is the appeal? Is it so hard to use a knife? Why put paper into your cake when you can simply make a normal cake and cut it however you like! Is this a general trend of people not wanting to use utensils?

I actually am much more okay with these kinds of cakes than cup-cake cakes. Why?

Because these cake pieces are designed to actually fit together so there are no huge gaps for the icing to fall through and it seems like they would be the joy of a cupcake with the look of a cake, without the gigantic mess.

Plus the shapes are pre-determined so they actually would look like the thing they're supposed to be rather than some wonky scalloped edged weirdness.

I'm very sad to say I'm one of the people who thought hey this could be a cool thing. Yup I even cut out that ad and put it on my fridge as a hint to my husband. LOL I know I'm one of those people. :) Hey it has to be better then some of them right?

As soon as I got the flyer and saw it I immediately thought of you and cake wrecks. I was UPSET. VERY upset. I almost e-mailed it to you... but got lazy and considered the fact that several others would be sending it to you... so I spared you another e-mail. And I was being lazy, like I said. :)Outrage, I say.

I think I must be particularly dense because it's Monday morning (and I live in Alberta lol), but I kinda don't get how these are puzzles...

Assembling basic geometric shapes together does NOT equal a puzzle, in my opinion.

Plus, the shapes would make interesting cupcakes, but I don't understand how they are supposed to retain the shape while cooking, unless you have special pans or something... little paper cups aren't very stiff.

It really looks like it would be so much easier to make an actual cake in the desired shapes than a ccc. It's just so much harder to keep the cc in the correct area while frosting. Am I the only person who's ever realized this? Maybe that's the allure of ccc?

I predict that at least once this holiday season I'll see one of these in person. I might not have the misfortune of being served one, but I'll sure as shootin' see one. I'll have to make sure I carry my cell phone with me all the time now. And chances are, the CCC will be poorly executed - a perfect combination of wreckiness.

I too saw these at my local JoAnns and was appalled. However, I do have to give them credit for the different shaped cups. Even though I would love nothing more than the abolishment of CCCs, if anything can cut down on the crappy scalloping it is a step in the right direction. You know if you were a glutton for punishiment you could decoarte them all separately using only the star tip, then when you put them together they won't be frosted together but it won't be as obvious where one ends and the other begins. Just a thought.

Just plain wrong. Color me angry! There is no way I could make them look that nice at home. This is where truth in advertising laws are required. I know I'm probably saying something everybody else already said, but honestly I just dont have time to read all those comments. Peace.

So, I went to a birthday party where they made a cupcake cake like this (from a Wilton set) to look like a dump truck. The truck was carrying gum drops instead of boulders, and it was the cutest darn thing I've ever seen. Also, the 1 year-old, whom we were celebrating, was completely thrilled. Additionally, I'd comment that his mother was by no means a Martha Stewart, but she pulled it off beautify (if only I had photos to prove it!).

Note to Kameron: Go ahead and take that Wilton class! Don't let the CCC's scare you off!

Wilton Method Instructors are independent contractors - don't hold it against us that the company has started schilling out such items. We are in it for the love of cake decorating and teaching that love to others. :-)

IMHO - I'd rather teach you how to do a full-fledged cake - or rather adorable individual cupcakes. The CCC's are pretty much made for those who just really don't want to TRY.

We'll teach you to make a cake that will hopefully never darken the doorstep of Cake Wrecks! LOL!

Ooh, my first time posting! I saw these in BB&B yesterday and almost took a picture...glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks this would be a disaster. Thanks for your blog--it makes me laugh every day, and now I can't walk through a bakery without looking for a wreck!

To the foul-mouthed "anonymous" whose comment was so filled with racist slurs I couldn't publish it:

For your benefit I have hyperlinked my Pollock reference, so that you can see for yourself that he was an influential American painter. I happen to be married to a Polish man, and would never make a slur against people of Polish descent. Maybe next time you should consider consulting a dictionary before attacking someone.

I am with most of the others - I got my BB&B ad in the mail and when I saw that kit - I immediately thought of this website! So funny to have logged in just now and voila! there it is on Cake Wrecks!!!!!

If you look closely at the boxes, you will see cupcakes that are not all round thus allowing them to fit together better. Maybe this is going to save the CCC or maybe Wilton has just figured out yet another way to make money and put another one use pan in our cabinets. Don't get me wrong, I definitely think the traditional sheet or layer cake is and always will be the best.

huh. this confuses me. they claim it's a 'puzzle', which leads me to believe that you could make different kinds of ccc's, but really, you can't. you have to buy a specific kit. that seems to take all of the fun and creativity out of this. wow, if i had time &/or patience, i'd totally try this. i hope someone does, so we can see what it 'really' looks like.

I feel like the worst thing about the CCC is that they deprive us of the best part of the cake: the filling. Where's the rich ganache, the german chocolate coconutty goodness, the fresh fruit with whipped cream? All gone in the name of the CCC! Bah!

Poor Jen. As an art major, I knew immediately your reference was to Jackson Pollock, the painter. (There was even a major motion picture released about him a few years ago starring Ed Harris. Anyone remember?) Anyway, just like your website proves, you're bound to run into a few fruitcakes once in awhile. Thanks for the perpetually upbeat and classy way you take it all in stride.

I guess I am in the minority. I actually got a CCC for my daughter's birthday. The parties at our house always end up so huge (sometimes like 20 kids) I just don't want to walk thru all of them wielding a knife.

It really turned out cute. The only issue was that some of the icing slid off when I pulled out a cupcake. Then again, I'm a cake person vs. an icing person.

It's a shame I even buy cakes...growing up my mom made Wedding cakes professionally!

DAMN! The only way to get that perfect break-away frosting is to cut it, and doesn't that defeat the purpose of a cupcake cake? It's now just a cake you have to cut up AND take the paper liners off. Maybe I'm just impatient when it comes to my cake, but that just sounds like a drag...

BUT - did anyone make the connection of the yellow butterfly puzzle cupcake cake kit and the two butterfly cupcake wrecks featured on October 20th? Proof that these kits are selling and that the results are almost too disturbing to believe. Oye.

I'd also like to address the fact that these are SILICONE cupcake molds - and I've never, EVER EVER EVER EVER had luck getting a cake or loaf of bread or whatever out of a silicone pan without tears, cursing, and half the dang thing REMAINING BEHIND....so yeah - this is so over-the-top bad...

I also immediately thought of you, and this blog, when I got that ad! I couldn't for the life of me figure out why they'd covered half the numeral 4 in fondant....LMAO! It's so NOT a purse!!!

I don't understand the whole CCC thing at all. If you're making cupcakes for the convenience factor, why not just make cupcakes?? Why do they have to be (hideously) disguised as a cake anyway?? What is the thinking there? Luckily for me I'll never see one of these crazy "puzzle cakes" (uh huh, real clever naming there Wilton) because I haven't been to a birthday party in YEARS where the parents actually *gasp* made the cake. Except for my 3 kids - they still get to suffer annually with something homemade. Luckily I won't be buying the CCC pan!

I was literally shown that add on Saturday. I tried really hard not to just give them the url of cake wrecks. There is no teaching some. They mean well and think they are cute in the picture... The road to good intentions.

Wilton. Is. Evil. They are responsible for more wrecks than any other company. And then they offer classes to teach the masses to make wrecks. They must be stopped! And doesn't it seem weird that BBB is promoting CCCs? Seems like they should be sponsored by AAA.

My Father would never allow a ccc. He wants a big piece of cake..a quarter of the cake. Not some sissy handfuls of paper, cake and icing.

My friend bought a ccc for her son and daughters birthday party. It was a wreck. It was all individual cupcakes iced with pink and purple. The Happy Birthday was scrawled over the top of the cc with brown chocolate shiny stuff. No one thought to take a picture.

She got her money back. Hopefully, that will discourage her from contributing to the deliquency of the local bakery by encouraging them to make ccc.

I have silicone cupcake molds (we have a train and a flower pot and these funny little footed cupcakes - they were a gift). Here's the thing about silicone bakeware - if you don't remove the item from the bakeware when it's very warm (like cool for <5 min and remove), it's not coming out in one piece. This is not stressed enough in the bakeware instructions and everyone I know who uses it makes this mistake at least once. The hope in this post is that these won't last simply b/c everyone makes this mistake once and most people will give up if this doesn't work the first time when you need it to.

Looking beyond the whole CCC wrecktastic potential-- that we may need to appoint a national distaster team to head up, am I really the only one to notice the poor bears feet are upside down? Shouldn't his toes be on top?? I know when I sit mine still face the sky.

So see, even the perfectly, and impossibly, decorated ad is a wreck too.

Haha, I got that mailer, too, and I wondered if it would show up on your site! I figured, though, that since it wasn't billed as a professional cake decorating thing, that it might escape your radar...not so. Wreckporters are everywhere...bwahaha!

I did cupcakes for my son's birthday last spring, for many of the reasons another poster mentioned--no hovering with a knife, worrying about portions; kids were happy with one cupcake and didn't overload on sugar.

BUT...I refuse to make a CCC. Each cupcake was individually decorated (really, people, it's easy, just buy some premade sugar decorations and PLOP THEM ON). Kids don't really care about a fancy cake; it's more for the parents' ego than anything.

I think cupcakes are fantastic and great for a kids' birthday party. Smooshed together though, not so much.

Here's one more reader who got the witty Pollock reference immediately. Just keep believing that the educated outnumber the uneducated out there. At least among Cake Wreck readers, anyway. Please don't dumb down future posts in any way because of one ill-bred ignoramus. The unique CW brand of wit is where at least half my laughs come from.

I, too, saw this ad a few weeks ago and thought this really should go on Cake Wrecks. Imagine my satisfaction to see it here yesterday.

I'm sooo excited... I sent in the CCC making thingy pictures from the BB&B ad! When I ran across that page in the ad, I stopped reading, immediatly took a picture of it and quickly submitted it! My bf told me I had lost my mind but obviously it was worth my time cause it made it in!!-Heather R.

Sup - Being a native of Nebraska, I was actually quite excited upon first viewing the cake in the BBB catelog last week (where I first saw it). I was thrilled...I remember when I was in 4th grade making a cake in the shape of Nebraska for our state's "birthday." We made a sheet cake and made the state outline in M&M's. But now...BBB was offering a cake kit in the shape of Nebraska??? Brilliant, even if it made no sense at all.

Then I realized it was supposed to be a purse, and even worse...it was a CCC. I now hate it. Hate it hate it hate it.

Ahh...at least they come in different shapes, which might avoid some scallopped edges! And, there are some cool ideas hatching in my brain that don't involve cup-cake cakes at all, but just use of the new shapes to make some cool individual cup cakes (I'm picturing Candy Corn cup cakes with those cool triangle shaped molds! That should be easy enough even for an amature like me!) Think outside the mold ya'll!

I had to demo this product earlier this year for a Wilton training seminar! The product wasn't on the market yet at the time I did it, and I had forgotten about it until I saw this post. I have to send in the photo! (I also need to dig out the kit. I have it in a box around here somewheres)

Ok, I only made it about 2/3 of the way through the comments so this might have been mentioned already. Those defending these monstrosities stating that since they are shaped to fit together you avoid big globs of icing seem to be forgetting how cupcakes bake. As they rise the tops form a dome. In order to get them to look like the picture you would have to either pile on the frosting, use fondant (on cupcakes, ha), or cut the tops on them all evenly. With all this work, why is it we are not just baking cute cupcakes?

I will say that I had to buy this as soon as I saw my 2 favorite things - puzzles & cakes - combined into one. I am not a kitchen person, but so far I put together a green turtle & a passable fish - & was then so proud of myself that I had to send a pic of each to 10 of my friends who understand that I usually have no culinary skills. :-) People definitely have to take off the silicone cup before attempting to eat the cupcake, but I actually got all the cupcake shapes back. (It was also a party of adults who ate the puzzle cake.) I was recently at a pot luck party where someone made a pretty sheet cake, and someone else made cupcakes - the cupcakes disappeared, but the large sheet cake was barely touched - the "it's too nice to cut into" excuse. Am now trying to think of what different puzzle cake shapes to arrange - I was always the type that followed Lego directions better than creating something new - sigh.

When I first saw that in Bed, Bath and Beyond's catalog I thought they were cute. Now that I have found your page and see what can go wrong with ccc even for professionals, I know that I will be staying away from those kits.

Wow - and just in time for the 80th anniversary of the culprit - the founder, Dewey McKinley Wilton must've been squirming in his grave. If it weren't for him (for his cake decorating school) and his family, who made cake decorating possible anywhere, those wrecks would never have existed!

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